Dorset Artists Guild

Tom Marshall

Born- Gloucester, 1976, Tom moved to the countryside, aged 5, and grew up gardening, drystone-walling and drawing everything from imaginary creatures to the bee orchids in the field next to his house, to copying comic book cartoons. At around 14, he started drawing his classmates, and for the next 4 years of school, spent every break and lunchtime doing this- learning to work fast and to observe carefully. He learnt to make woodcuts and then, studying Fine Art, to do various kinds of traditional and experimental printmaking, but graduated without the confidence to work in art, and for the next 14 years made almost no artwork, working instead in a kitchen in a Christian community, a hospital, a special needs school, and then in teaching EFL. In 2012, this became unsustainable as a single parent with 2 small children, and he left to deal with stress, depression, and exhaustion. 

The following year he went self-employed as an artist, having never framed a picture or entered an exhibition- having no contacts in the art world nor any real clue of how to do this, plus, being completely out of practice, his art having been limited to a couple of sketchbooks of portraits of the kids when tiny, and cartoons to illustrate grammar points. 

Tom has since exhibited widely in the local area and further afield, won prizes for his plein air work- e.g. at the 2024 Otter Gallery Open, and the 2019 Pintar Rapido in Chelsea, and- reconnecting with his love of wildlife, has made outdoor art in the local area the main part of his work- but he also does printmaking and paints on various kinds of metals, back home. His hope is that some of that joy of making his artworks is passed on to the viewer. 
Tom Marshall